Police, firefighters, city of New Bedford cope with layoffs

NEW BEDFORD — The Police Department began notifying its 38 most junior officers Thursday afternoon that they will be laid off in less than two weeks.

BRIAN FRAGA

NEW BEDFORD — The Police Department began notifying its 38 most junior officers Thursday afternoon that they will be laid off in less than two weeks.

More than two dozen of those officers — their last day of employment is Feb. 24 — attended the City Council meeting Thursday evening. They provided a concrete reminder to councilors and attendees of the stakes in the current financial crisis facing New Bedford and municipalities across the country.

"This is a devastating hit to us," said Officer George Lozado, 25, who was hired last June.

"We're trying to show positive support for each other," said Lozado, also noting that several officers had young children with them.

"This isn't just affecting us, it's affecting guys with mortgages and families," he said. "There has to be another way."

In accordance with civil service requirements, the layoffs had to begin with the least-tenured police officers and firefighters. The police officers who were laid off had all been hired within the past five years.

Among the casualties was Shawn Robert, 32, who was the department's most productive uniformed patrol officer in 2007, with more than 200 arrests.

Officer Steven Wadman, 31, also is being laid off. He and his partner, Officer Joshua Fernandes, were shot while responding to the December 2006 shooting rampage at the Foxy Lady.

The mayor also laid off five Spanish-speaking police officers who were hired last June to fulfill a department need to address the city's growing immigrant population.

Two other bilingual recruits who had recently left jobs with the Mattapoisett Police Department with the promise of positions in New Bedford also were laid off.

New Bedford police spokesman Lt. Jeffrey P. Silva said that while the police remain "absolutely committed to serve and protect the city's residents," the department's "hearts and prayers" were with "brother and sister officers and their families."

"While they may be gone from our force for now, they will be part of the New Bedford police family forever," Silva said.

The scores of police and firefighter layoffs will force their respective departments to reconfigure in an attempt to provide the same level and quality of services with less manpower.

Mayor Scott W. Lang said he "erred on the side of public safety" in shifting a higher proportion of layoffs away from police and fire to other departments.

The mayor pledged that public safety will not suffer, even with the cuts to police and fire.

"I'm not going to put the city in jeopardy in any way," he said.

"People will get the best services. We'll get to every emergency in the city. The police and fire departments will have to figure out a way to do it."

Silva said the Police Department will make adjustments.

"It goes without saying that we will do the very best we can with the resources we have left to work with," Silva said.

A secretary for New Bedford Fire Chief Paul Leger said Thursday that Leger was not taking reporters' phone calls seeking comment.

The police and fire departments have started planning how to restructure themselves with fewer bodies to fill cruisers and fire trucks.

On Thursday, a memo was sent to all police personnel in "special assignment" units instructing them to submit their preferences of patrol shifts and the three police stations.

The Police Department's special-assignment units include major crimes, narcotics, juvenile and sexual assault, gangs, community policing, the marine unit and school resource officers.

Since the majority of the laid-off police officers work in patrol, the department will most likely have to reassign some special-assignment personnel to fulfill the minimum number of officers required by contract to patrol the city during the three eight-hour shifts.

Lang said he wants the school resource officer program kept intact. Removing people from the other special-assignment units is "on the table," he said.

"I will not remove police officers from the schools under any circumstances," the mayor said. "I'm not going to have the parents worried about the schools."

Officer Leonard Baillargeon, the police union president, said this week he did not see how the mayor or the department would be able keep all the special assignments, given the massive layoff.

"I don't know how the mayor does that without consolidating and reducing from those positions to the uniformed patrol positions," Baillargeon said.

"I don't see any way he can do it, short of the general public being affected with slower and less responsive police services."

New Bedford Fire Lt. James Allen, the fire union president, said this week he also anticipates slower response times for the Fire Department, which he said began the fiscal year down 11 firefighters.

"We're already approximately one company of men down, so we're really running 10 companies with the manpower to run nine companies," said Allen, adding that the department already had nearly depleted its overtime budget.

Allen said the layoffs will force two to three engine and ladder companies to close. That would force the Fire Department to operate with seven or eight companies.

Allen recalled the effect of the Fire Department losing Engine Company 8 in 2003 due to budget constraints. The company was recommissioned in July 2006.

"That was a horrible time for us," he said. "This is a long, narrow city with a lot of three-deckers and businesses. We're a very busy Fire Department, and it's going to show."

Contact Brian Fraga at bfraga@s-t.com

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